Nordic Genre Lab Participants Unpack Survival, Horror, Dystopian Pics

Home to some of the Nordics’ hottest genre talents making waves at top international festivals – Hanna Bergholm and Ilja Rautsi whose respective “Nightborn” and “Red Snow” were snagged by Shudder – Helsinki will no doubt vibrate this week to the beat of some of the most jaw-dropping and entertaining genre projects taking part in the inaugural Nordic Genre Lab.

“Alma,” a Finnish thriller penned by Rautsi, “Trespassers,” a Swedish “Deliverance” from “Midsommar” producer Patrik Andersson, and “Whistler,” the first-ever Faroese horror pic, are among eight high-end genre films in development to be showcased at the Helsinki Intl. Film Festival’s industry confab Finnish Film Affair, running Sept 23-25.

Between Thursday and Friday, the Nordic Genre Lab titles will be pitched live to 500-plus delegates, attend workshops and receive mentorship from Two Magpies Entertainment’s Claire Willats, former Netflix commissioner, and genre expert Todd Brown, former XYZ Films head of acquisitions.

Under their former Netflix and XYZ gigs, the two senior industry executives collaborated on the original Norwegian version of “The Trip,” starring Noomi Rapace and Aksel Hennie, and the acquisition of the Netflix hit “The Platform.” Through her London-based banner Two Magpies Entertainment, Willats is attached to Norwegian “Troll” helmer Roar Uthaug’s upcoming supernatural horror “Amara.” As for Toronto-based Brown, his next ambitious genre bet is Johnnie To’s “Two Gun Cohen,” which is in early development.

When approached by head of program Laura Laaksonen to join her in the intensive training venture Nordic Genre Lab, the two international power players signed up, eager to contribute to strengthening the Nordic genre ecosystem and boost the career of emerging genre talent.

“Nordic genre remains very strong, in my view,” Todd told Variety. “The base of talent is deep, and the Nordics in general do a remarkable job of balancing class and critical quality with audience accessibility. You continue to not only see a high volume of projects at global festivals but also see those perform commercially.”

However, he argued, “There still isn’t much in the way of institutional knowledge of genre within funding bodies or a way for these creators to really connect, support and learn from one another in the way they can within the arthouse world.” Which is why he’s hoping with his Nordic Genre Lab colleagues “to help fill that gap.”

Willats, co-founder of the event with Laaksonen, added: “I think there is a huge appetite for Nordic genre in the global market. If you look at streamers like Netflix, “Troll” is still the number one film not in the English language. We are hoping the lab can help draw more focus on the wealth of talent in the Nordics, and we hope to repeat this next year and include Sámi, Icelandic and Greenlandic projects, which are unfortunately not represented this year,” she stated.

Together with Norwegian producer Einar Loftesnes (“The Tunnel,” “Kraken”), Willats and Brown selected the eight titles out of 29 submissions, based on the originality of the project, quality of the team, the writing and stage of development.

The finalists represent “an extraordinary range of genre filmmaking, from folk horror rooted in Faroese landscape to dystopian survival thriller in Norway and from animated psychological horror to dark political satire from Finland and more,” said Willats.

Among the participants, Jón Hammer (“Trom”), producer of Gudmund Helmsdal’s “Whistler,” said, “We set out to make the first Faroese horror feature, and the first in what we hope will become a series of Faroese genre films, so the opportunity to develop ‘Whistler’ further with the guidance and expertise of such strong mentors is incredibly exciting for us.”

Pauliina Piipponen of Finland’s Making Movies, producer of “Alma,” helmed by Pete Riski (“Icebreaker,” ”Dark Floors”) said, “Taking part in the Nordic Genre Lab comes at a very good moment for the project as we’re now moving further into the creative development and the international financing and production strategy.”

Juha Fiilin (“Joy Eternal”), director and producer of the Finnish anime horror “Echo Chamber,” hopes to build on the program to strengthen his film’s market potential, ink Nordic distribution and global sales. “Horror is a perennially attractive genre, but the recent successes of ‘Obsession’ and ‘Backrooms’ prove a maturing of the audience. People are ready for high-quality character work in genre films,” he added.

Nordic Genre Lab is backed by Nordisk Kulturfond, the Finnish Film Foundation and Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

Full rundown of the Nordic Genre Lab Projects:
“Alma” (Pete Riski, Finland)
Produced by Academy-Award shortlisted and Golden Globe nomination Making Movies (“The Fencer,” “My Sailor, My Love”), the ambitious €4 million ($4.5 million) project is penned by genre wiz Ilja Rautsi (“Red Snow,” “Nightborn,” “Hatching”).

Set between two-timelines World War II Finland. We follow Alma (16), who gains telekinetic powers to save her father from the retreating Nazi army in Lapland. Then in the present day, the same character -aged 96- meets her granddaughter for the first time, and they must escape Alma’s past sins, exploring the cost of gaining power.

“’Alma’ deals with war and its consequences through three generations of women, combining a historical setting with themes of trauma, power and responsibility that feel particularly relevant today,” says Pauliina Piipponen, who produces with Kai Nordberg and Kaarle Aho.

“Echo Chamber” (Juha Fiilin, Finland)
Anime psychological horror penned by Adam Cullen. First pitched at Cartoon Next 2025.
“Echo Chamber” combines tone and artistic sensibilities of prestige drama with the anime-inspired spectacle of chilling body horror, viscerally rendered as only hand-drawn animation can deliver it,” says Fiilin of Fiilin Good Films who produces with Debbie Stepgens. “It’s a mature, thoughtful horror where a curse forces together two sisters estranged by their grief, but that curse inadvertently provides the circumstances and opportunities for them to learn what it is like to grieve together. To see that it is bittersweet and healing; not just bitter.”

“Linden Lane 6” (Josefina Rautiainen, Finland)
From the prolific It’s Alive Films, behind Oscar submissions “Euthanizer, “The Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic” and Finnish hit “100 Litres of Gold.”

“It’s a timely and provocative genre film that reverses the traditional roles of men and women in order to explore sexual harassment, manipulation, and abuse from the opposite perspective,” says producer Anita Hyppönen. “By changing these familiar dynamics, the film shows that abuse is often less about desire and more about power and control.”

“Long Way Home” (Kjersti Helen Rasmussen, Norway)
Produced by Njål Lambrechts for Truewest.
Character-driven dystopian road movie in which, after an electromagnetic pulse wipes out all electricity across Western Norway, Tea (22) and her neighbor Herman set out on a dangerous journey through a frozen and increasingly lawless landscape to reach her childhood home, confronting both the chaos around them and the darkness within.

“At its core, it’s a coming-of-age story,” says Rasmussen. The physical journey home becomes an inner journey from dependency to independence, while the society around the characters faces its own test of trust, solidarity and community. The future I portray is both dark and hopeful. Systems will fail and people will fall, but it is in the darkness that we discover the light and what it costs to choose it,” she says.

“Sauna Diplomacy” (Teemu Niukkanen, Finland)
Debut feature from the director of the 2017 Sundance selected short “Fucking Bunnies” and Canneseries winning series “Money Shot.” Produced by Tack Films’ John Lundsten, behind the 2017 Palme d’Or nominated short “The Ceiling.”

Dark comedy, set in 1970, during the height of Finlandization. A Finnish diplomat is ordered to host a high-ranking Soviet official at his summer cottage for the weekend. What begins as an awkward diplomatic retreat descends into humiliation, manipulation, and psychological power games.

“The Evil Eye” (Kristian Lidegaard, Denmark)
Penned by Kristian Lidegaard and Sissel Dalsgaard Thomsen, produced by Manna Film (“Kalak,” “The Quiet Migration”).

Online found-footage horror film in which the main character, Oliver, is both the villain and the creator of the film we are watching. Obsessed with Lucas, a successful young swimmer who bullied him as a child, he secretly films and infiltrates his victim’s life, sharing disturbing “films” on a closed online forum until the line between observer and destroyer disappears entirely. “Told entirely through iPhones, POV glasses, surveillance cameras, screen recordings, social media and an uncensored private forum on the dark web, the film is both instantly recognizable and radically unique. As stories of online abuse and violent digital communities surface worldwide, the film’s horror feels contemporary, borderless and disturbingly real,” says producer Maria Møller Kjeldgaard.

“Trespassers” (Johannes Persson, Sweden)
From the director of the horror pic “Feed,” starring Molly Nutley, Sofia Kappel. Written by Melina Maraki (“Summer of 1985”); produced by “Midsommar” producer Patrik Andersson, with Mylla Films co-founder Jakob Abrahamsson.

Backwoods horror-thriller in which four young people from a failed anti-establishment movement travel to the vast wilderness of Northern Sweden to reconnect with nature, but after a river rafting accident leaves them stranded, they discover they are not alone, and not welcome on land controlled by a group that has isolated itself for centuries with its own terrifying beliefs.

“Whistler” (Gudmund Helmsdal, Faroe Islands)
Produced by Outlier Projects’ Jón Hammer (“Trom”), formerly at Zentropa.

Helmsdal’s “Brother Troll” bowed at 160 festivals and won best short at the Arizona Int’l Film Festival. Survival folk horror from the set on the bird cliffs and grazing lands of the Faroe Islands, where four marine biologists race to catch the last ferry after their guide’s fatal climbing accident, only to find themselves hunted across forbidden grazing land by a reclusive farmer who uses a bone whistle to command a pack of grotesque half-human creatures.